BY JOHN TULLY
John Jocka Burns died on October 11 at the age of 93. Although
he avoided the limelight, Jocka was an indefatigable working-class agitator
all of his adult life. He participated in many of the political struggles
of the
Issue 513
News
BY ROBERTO JORQUERA
SYDNEY The 35th anniversary of the death of Ernesto Che Guevara was marked with a seminar, entitled "Latin America's struggle for justice". More than 100 people participated.
The gathering was initiated by Committees in
BY PETER ROBSON
NEWCASTLE An angry crowd of staff and students confronted Newcastle University vice-chancellor Roger Holmes on October 16 as he attempted to justify plans to close the Huxley Library and replace it with an electronic
BY MAURICE FARRELL
SYDNEY Reporting on its 2002 readership survey, the October 10
Sydney Star Observer stated that the gay and lesbian market remains
buoyant, despite the difficulties faced this year by peak event-based community
The latest in a series of Socialist Alliance-initiated Sydney suburban rallies against war on Iraq took place in Newtown on October 18. The rally was addressed by Socialist Alliance candidates for Marrickville (Sue Johnson) and Port Jackson (Paul
BY NICK EVERETT
SYDNEY On October 14, a meeting of the Palm Sunday Committee agreed to establish a new coalition of Sydney anti-war groups to organise a "walk against the war" on November 30 around the slogans "No war on Iraq! No Australian
HOBART Activists
had wondered if the terrorist attack in Bali would dampen the spirits of
the fourth in a series of weekly vigils against the war on Iraq that have
attracted up to 100 people. On October 18, the conclusion was that it hadn't.
BY ALISON DELLIT
On October 13,
as the news of the mass murder in Bali spread across Australia, 45,000
people marched through Melbourne's streets in order to prevent the loss
of thousands more lives in a war on Iraq.
Innocent people
BY PETER ROBSON
Only one year
ago yesterday, we too lost our brothers and sisters to the violence and
injustice that stalks humanity right across the globe, refugees' rights
activist Kathy Newnam told people gathered in Newcastle's Civic
BRISBANE The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) University of
Queensland branch has launched a Save our George campaign to win the
reinstatement of associate professor George Lafferty. In August, Lafferty,
who was employed by the UQ
Palestine forum
BRISBANE "For a day, the Palestinians felt that the whole world had not forgotten them", Eric Storlie, a peace activist recently returned from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, told a forum and video night at the Resistance
BY IGGY KIM
The campaign to free Australian resident academic Lesley McCulloch
from detention in Indonesia has been boosted by the National Tertiary Education
Industry Union (NTEU).
The union's Tasmanian division donated $1000 to help
BY BRONWYN JENNINGS
GEELONG Successive Australian governments had shameful policies
towards refugees and now the Howard government is going to create more
by throwing its support behind George Bush's war on Iraq, Brigitte Ellery,
BY SUSAN AUSTIN
CAIRNS Non-nursing health unions have agreed to the enterprise bargaining agreement offered by the Queensland health department which involves a pay rise of 3.5% per annum, back-paid to June 1, and retention of many of the
BY JIM McILROY
BRISBANE Trade unions need to more actively support refugees' rights and expose their members to the truth about the plight of asylum seekers and the evils of Australia's refugee detention centres. This was the theme of a
World
BY DALE T. MCKINLEY
JOHANNESBURG Be afraid. Be very afraid. Lurking beneath the surface of an evidently otherwise contented and patriotic South African society, there lies a "new" enemy of the state and the people.
According to those in the
BY ROBERT FISK
LONDON Each day now, someone says something even more incredible even more unimaginable about President George Bush's obsession with war.
On October 7, Bush himself told an audience in Cincinnati about "nuclear
BY ROHAN PEARCE
The October 2 Cleveland Jewish News reported that several members of Congress, deemed to be "not a friend of Israel" or "anti-Israel", will not be reelected to Congress in November.
They include Democrat party members Earl
BY NORM DIXON
The streets of El Salvador's capital San Salvador were flooded as more than 50,000 people marched on October 16 in a resounding rejection of the privatisation of health care.
Doctors, nurses, medical students and health workers were
BY EVA CHENG
Despite rampant vote rigging, Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf failed to achieve a majority in the country's National Assembly (lower house) election on October 10. The election just managed to beat the three-year deadline
BY ROHAN PEARCE
While the leaders of the top imperialist countries argue over attacking Iraq, Israel's war on the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories continues.
A report by the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, covering events
BY STUART MUNCKTON
Political tensions in Venezuela continue to rise. On October 10, there was a mass mobilisation of middle- and upper-class opponents of President Hugo Chavez in the capital Caracas. This was followed three days later by an even
BY ROHAN PEARCE
Although most leaders of the Arab countries claim to support for the Palestinian national liberation struggle, a recent report by the 22-member Arab League indicates that this commitment is primarily verbal.
The October 15 Jordan
BY JOHN PILGER
LONDON Edward Said once asked who, if not the writer, will "defeat the imposed silence and normalised quiet of power". Ghada Karmi is such a writer. Her book In Search of Fatima: a Palestinian story, to be published this month
[The following statement was made by Ana Belen Monte to a US district court in Washington, DC, on October 16, before being sentenced to a 25-year prison term. She pleaded guilty in March to having spied for Cuba from the time she started work at the
GLASGOW — An opinion poll, commissioned by the Glasgow Herald has revealed that support for the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) is running at 9%. Support for the party has continued to grow steadily since scoring 2% of the vote in the 1999 election
BY NORM DIXON
A series of "leaks" to major US newspapers have shed light on what is emerging as Washington's preferred political scenario in a post-invasion Iraq: before or during the US attack, senior officers of Iraq's armed forces overthrow
BY TAFADZWA CHOTO
HARARE More than 600 teachers have been fired for striking for better pay, it was reported on October 15. The state-controlled Herald newspaper reported that 627 members of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ)
BY EVA CHENG
The month-long, four-phase election in the Indian-held section of
Kashmir (IHK) was completed on October 8. The result ended the National
Conference (NC) party's half-century near monopoly of political power in
the IHK.
Culture
BY NORM DIXON
Amiri Baraka — a famous African-American poet and political activist who, as LeRoi Jones, wrote the classic book Blues People in the 1960s — is under attack for a poem he wrote about the 9/11 attacks, titled "Somebody Blew Up
One Man in his TimeBy Hans PostOtford Press, 2002$31.77Order at <http://www.otfordpress.com.au/>
REVIEW BY PETER McGREGOR
Hans Post's One Man in his Time is an amazing and inspiring story. It's a historically significant autobiography
Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only SuperpowerBy William BlumZed Books, 2002308 pages, $24.95 (pb)
REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON
Dossier season is upon us it seems. British Prime Minister Tony Blair's September 24 dossier on Iraq was spectacularly